battlespiritsfanonfandomcom-20200213-history
The Spirited Crane - Chapter 11: Challenge Sent
<- Previous chapter Next chapter -> Chapter 11: Challenge Sent “Gabriel…? What are you talking about? In the first place, who are you?” Mr. Lighthouse almost shouted at Marcella. She blinked for a few times, until she realised her rude entrance. She then made a small bow in front of Mr. Lighthouse and Vishten. She put her hand in front of her chest, “I’m master Mellan O’Doherty’s personal maid, as well as his childhood playmate, Marcella.” She then directed her hand at Merduk, “And this is Merduk, my Spirit.” Vishten nodded, “I see… So, ladies, would you mind elaborating your request?” Marcella closed her eyes. She thought for a while, then replied, “Let me get straight to the point then. A tragedy happened to master many years ago… That caused him to split into two personalities. One is the original personality, the other… the original personality calls him Gabriel.” “And? Why do you think that by defeating him, the alternative personality will disappear?” Vishten continued asking. “Obviously, we don’t have any actual proof for this, but it’s just that Merduk and I thought that if we give him a big enough impact, things may change again…” Marcella replied. Mr. Lighthouse and Vishten looked at each other without saying anything. Suddenly, Vishten held his own chin and smiled. He then turned to Marcella and said, “I’m fine with that. Instead, I’ll promise that we’ll keep the Gabriel boy under control. However, there are three conditions.” He put up three of his fingers. Mr. Lighthouse was a bit shocked at what he said, but he knew it was too late to stop him. Marcella did not say anything, and Merduk also kept silent, since she was not the one in charge. Then, Marcella carefully nodded once. Vishten laughed, “Hahaha! A teacher won’t do much horrible to a student, don’t worry! But well, here are the conditions: one, you will tell us everything you know about Mellan and Gabriel, or else we can’t do much here; two, I want you to investigate around the school and make a list of other people who also have Spirit partners; and three, I want you to stop hunting down other regular people.” Merduk responded, “I’m afraid that we can’t fulfil the third condition. You know that, don’t you? A Spirit must be constantly in action. It’s like training muscles, the more fights, the stronger the bond between the human and Spirit; oppositely, if a Spirit always avoids battles, eventually the bond will disappear, and so will the existence of the Spirit.” “I know very well, since I’m also a Spirit myself. That’s why, in exchange for that, Pace and I are willing to get into battles with you two. How does that sound?” Merduk made a faint smile, “Well, make sure you make yourself a good enough entertainment.” “I will,” Vishten smiled back. “My problem this time, for the second condition, I am afraid I cannot fulfil that.” Marcella spoke, and continued, “I am required to stay beside master whenever I can. This moment is an exception, since he has been called for one-to-one supervision right now.” “For beating up Dearan… no… challenging him to a Spirit fight this morning?” Vishten asked. Marcella frowned, “Yes… So you know that already…” “I’m very well aware of my surroundings. As for your problem, you may not be able to walk around…” He then looked at Merduk, “but your dear Spirit can.” He added, “Besides, let me ask you, how much do you know about the Battle spirits system?” Merduk answered, “It’s a system that reuses the souls of those who pass away, and recreates them into Spirits to fight with the existing humans. That’s it.” “Do you know who’s controlling it?” “No.” Vishten smiled with deep meanings, “I’ll help you out with collecting the list. After that, I shall tell you more about the system, how does that sound?” Merduk was shocked, “How do you…” “After the list, my fair lady,” he cut her off. Then, the bell rang, signalling the time for the next lesson. Marcella rushed off; Mr. Lighthouse stayed in his classroom to prepare; Vishten and Merduk already started their search. In a spot somewhere in the school, Mellan walked out of the classroom. He licked his fingers in reminiscence of the scent he just tasted, and left the empty classroom and empty chair and paper scattered on the floor. Marcella saw him from afar, and ran up to him. Both of them were heading to the same classroom. Mellan noticed that Merduk was not with her, so he asked. Marcella almost panicked, but she quickly covered up by saying that she was out for some investigation, in search for anymore Spirits nearby. “Why would you do that?” Mellan would not glare at Marcella, but his tone clearly contained some kind of complaint. “That’s… It’s just for safety reasons. I know master is strong, and I do believe in your power, but I think that it is best to be safe.” Mellan was staring at her for a while, then he smiled, “I suppose you’re right. That’s my good Marcella. Remember to tell me who’s there so I can hunt them down.” Mellan gently patted her hair. Noticing that there were still people walking past, she looked down at the floor, and was blushing. Then, among the students, they noticed that Dearan was walking towards them. Upon seeing him, Mellan had a menacing smile. He stood tall in front of him, “What do you want, punk?” Dearan raised his index finger and pointed at Mellan’s nose, “Tonight, I’m going to return everything you’ve done to me. You better be prepared.” He glared at the big bully. What led to afterwards was Mellan’s loud laugh in the hall, “What can you even do to me? You’re just a scum meant to stay below ground, with your Miss. Winged Girl getting torn apart.” He pulled Dearan’s collar towards himself, so their faces were very close to each other. Almost whispering, Mellan continued, “But if you want to seek destruction yourself, I always welcome you. I’ll wait for you in my house, down the road on the left of the school entrance.” He then let go of Dearan, and patted him shoulder twice, before walking away with a pressuring aura. Marcella chased after Mellan. When she got past Dearan, she peeked at him with a worried and confused expression. Dearan only continued moving after they disappeared from sight. During lesson, Marcella was sitting beside Mellan. She would like to talk to Merduk, but Mellan would notice. Despite being invisible, Marcella could feel that Merduk had returned to her side. For some humans, they could communicate with their own Spirits through telepathy, but unfortunately, the bond between Marcella and Merduk were not deep enough, so Marcella had to actually do something to pass her message to Merduk. Luckily, at that moment, the teacher required them to write down a large chunk of notes. While Marcella was writing them, she inserted a few extra words between sentences in bold. “Action”, “vs”, “master”, “tonight”, these are the extra words that she wrote down. After that, she could feel Merduk leaving her again. Mellan also noticed her leave, so he whispered to Marcella, “What is it?” Marcella almost jumped. While his eyes were on her face, she quickly covered her notebook with her arms. “What… do you mean…?” She asked. “Merduk, she came back and left again.” “Ah… that… She just came back to check up on me, and left to continue the investigation.” She quickly explained. Mellan did not bother to ask further, and chose to focus on class. Marcella let out a sigh of relief in her heart. On the other hand, Merduk went up to the roof of the school building, where Vishten was taking a rest. She sat down beside him, “Action’s challenging Mellan tonight. Is that your doing?” Upon hearing the news, surprisingly, Vishten seemed to be very calm. He slowly shook his head, “No, even if I did, he wouldn’t be willing to listen to me.” He then stood up, “I’ll have to tell Pace, but he’s teaching a lesson right now, so I’ll do that later. Shall we start the investigation then?” When both of them stood up, a hand appeared between them, reached out from behind, holding a piece of paper rolled up. Both of them abruptly turned around, and saw a person in hood standing in front of them, covering himself from top to bottom with a big piece of brown cloth that surrounded himself, preventing the other two from knowing who he actually is. The person also had a mechanical unicorn beside, grown with purple wings on the back. It was taller than both of them even though they were standing up. “No need to do the investigation. I’ve done it already,” he spoke in a young boy voice, gently shaking the scroll, hinting them to take it. Vishten took it, and immediately the person turned around and was about to get onto his unicorn. Just when both of them were about to say something, he spoke again, “It was I who had Dearan Action challenging Mellan O’Doherty.” He then jumped onto his unicorn. “Why did you do this?” Merduk shouted at him. The person did not answer her question directly. Instead, he said, “Tonight’s fight, no one is allowed to interfere. Let his skill shine.” The person looked down at them on his unicorn. The sun was just behind him, causing his face to not be easily seen. What the two could only see were his shining red eyes. They were glittering in beauty with a gentle stare. Even though he was shrouded in a mysterious aura, they could not help but to think that under the hood was a kind and caring person. He tendered his unicorn, spoke to it with a soft voice, “Let’s go, Unite-Horn.” And the rider rapidly ascended into the sky. The unicorn ran in thin air, as if there was a path, and they disappeared from their sight. “Who… What… Why?” Merduk muttered. Vishten quickly opened the scroll, and checked all the names on it. “There’s no mistake… I can recognise some of the names. They are students of this academy. Who exactly is he?” Vishten said. “And why would he want Mellan and Dearan to fight alone? What’s his purpose?” Merduk was thinking hard for an answer, but she just could not figure it out. “Anyway, if that’s the case, then tonight, we need to supervise both of them. Since Marcella is Mellan’s personal maid, she’ll always be beside him. As for Pace and I, we’ll hide something near his house, and make sure that no other strangers will suddenly attack. We don’t know who that was right now, but I feel that he means no harm. I’ll also tell Tsuru later, so we can keep an eye on our surroundings.” Vishten said as he rolled up the scroll. Merduk nodded in agreement. Vishten then added, “Also, I’ll have Pace make a copy for you later.” “There’s no problem for me,” she then smirked, “I guess we have a common enemy now.” “And we have a common mission,” Vishten smiled back. Merduk checked the surrounding, making sure that no one could see them, “Well, the investigation is over then. I’ll return to Marcella first.” “Wait a minute,” Vishten stopped her, “I did promise you after we got the list, I’ll tell you everything I know about the system.” And so, Vishten told Merduk about the plan to destroy the Battle Spirits system. She was shocked, but for a different reason. “But… won’t that mean you’ll disappear too?” She asked. Vishten looked out at the far distance, which was a big area of grass pitch within the school ground. He said, “I was the ancestor of the Lighthouse family. I have been watching over my future generations for hundreds of years. I am fortunate enough to witness this world changing, and also all my families’ growth. Right now, I just want to remove the threat for Pace. There is no reason for me to stay anymore.” Merduk sat down again, “Maybe for you there’s a feeling of satisfaction… But for me… and also the others, who actually don’t remember anything from the past… It’s just unfair to us! We’re like newborn babies now, and it hurts to know that we’ll disappear before we can become adults.” For the first time, Vishten’s face was expressing compassion. He had rarely encountered other kinds of Spirits, so he would not understand how the lack of past memory would affect one’s view on the aftermath. Ever since he manifested as a Spirit, all he was thinking was ending this annoying and strange system. “I cannot guarantee anything,” he said, “but maybe, just maybe, there’s a way for all of us to survive even after that.” “I do hope so. But…” Merduk stared at Vishten, “if there isn’t a way, I’m afraid I can’t cooperate with you further.” Vishten made a faint smile, “That’s alright, but we can think about that at that time.” “I suppose…” This time it was Merduk who stared at the open grass field. Vishten decided to leave her alone, and he returned to Mr. Lighthouse’s side. Merduk started getting flashbacks. She, Zainde-Million, and Baron’s Spirit, Baroque-Bordeaux, all had the same title, The Nether Three Giants. They existed to destroy, to rule over the dead, yet it seemed that someone disagreed with that. Both Mellan and Baron were using their Spirits to their fullest potential, but Marcella refused to do so. At first Merduk was a bit irritated that Marcella did not believe in her strength, but later she realised there was a different reason. Marcella recognised Merduk’s strength, and so she did not want her to hurt anyone. Merduk needed to persuade Marcella for a long time before she could finally battle. Merduk was puzzled. Normally, people got together because their mind sets were similar. However, Marcella’s belief was very much different to Mellan’s. Mellan believed that reigning over others was the best way, while Marcella believed one should show care to others to gain respect. One night, she finally understood. Marcella was finishing Mellan’s homework again in her own room, while Merduk was standing at a corner watching her. It was past midnight. Mellan was already asleep. “Why are you helping him?” Merduk suddenly asked. Marcella did not understand her question. Merduk sighed and said again, “Why are you helping Mellan? Don’t you feel he kind of treats you like a slave?” Before Marcella could answer, someone walked in. It was Mellan. Merduk was stunned for a moment, but she quickly bowed and apologised to him. However, instead of getting angry, Mellan only told her to relax. When she looked at him, he was also showing a gentle smile, very much unlike to the usual Mellan she saw. Mellan walked to Marcella and looked at what she was doing, then said, “Sorry that Gabriel made you do all the work again.” Marcella smiled at him, “It’s fine master. I’m used to this already.” In return, he only hugged her tightly, “If only… if only I wasn’t that weak…” Marcella gently patted her head, “It’s not your fault, master. Please don’t regret on anything.” Merduk was puzzled with what she was seeing. Very soon, Marcella explained. The Mellan in front of them at that moment was the real Mellan. He could only take over the body when Gabriel, the other personality, went to sleep. Currently, only the real Mellan knew about the double personalities issue, Gabriel did not know anything on it. Both Mellan and Marcella were trying to find a cure in secret. After a short while of struggle, Mellan finally got Marcella to sleep. He then sat at the desk and finished his own homework. Merduk sat beside Marcella and watched over her. The room was dark, only with a dim light from the desk lamp. It was a momentary silence. No one talked. The only consistent sound was the tip of pen rubbing on paper. Suddenly, Mellan spoke, “Is she asleep?” Merduk touched Marcella’s brown cheek, and softly stroked her hair. Then she said to him, “Very peacefully too.” Mellan did not turn to Merduk, but he continued talking, “I have a favour to ask, Merduk.” She was a bit startled, “What is it?” “Be with Marcella whenever you can please. Now that I can’t be with her often, I’m afraid that she would feel lonely at times.” Mellan put down his pen, and turned to her, “I’m also sorry if I can’t repay. There’s a limited time for me to be active. But, it’d be really helpful if you can take care of Marcella.” He bowed at her. Merduk finally understood why Marcella stayed beside Mellan (Gabriel) even though she was treated fairly badly. The real Mellan was someone who was willing to put down his pride to hope for the best of his childhood friend. “Well… I did agree with that after all…” Merduk murmured to herself while lying on the roof alone. “If giving her the best means destroying the Battle Spirits system, I suppose I should do that then…” Merduk watched as a few birds flew across, “I wonder if she’d miss me…” Category:Fanfiction Category:Work By Andelas